No One’s Going To Fool Gen Z With A TikTok And A War Crime— And That’s Just Fine

Zohran & Saikat Get It But Hakeem Jeffries And The DNC Still Don’t

Saikat and Zohran

In 2016 and 2020 Trump’s support among young voters  (aged 18-29) remained relatively stable at around 36%, with Hillary (55%) and Biden (61%) securing a significant majority of the youth vote. Last year, though, Señor TACO made notable gains (to 46 or 47%), increasing his share by roughly 10-11 points compared to 2020, narrowing the gap with the Democrats completely inauthentic candidate to single digits. This shift was particularly pronounced among young men, with 56% supporting Trump compared to 41% in 2020. So far this cycle— before the Democrats name someone who could well be as bad as Harris— Trump’s support among voters under 30 is already cratering. The new YouGov poll for The Economist shows Trump’s job approval at 29% (the worst of any age group) compared to 66% who disapprove, a precipitous, albeit precipitous drop since he slithered back into the White House. Trump’s not cool anymore… too bad the Democratic Party Isn’t either.

Young voters disapprove of his handling of every single issue:

• The economy- 30% approve

• Inflation- 22% approve

• Immigration- 31% approve

• Foreign policy- 25% approve

• National security- 30% approve

• Foreign trade- 26% approve

Voters were also asked where their sympathies were in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Again, by far, young voters stood out from voters in general, only 14% picking Israel, 44% picking the Palestinians.

Most young voters would either like to decrease (15%) or cut off (40%) military aid to Israel. This is in stark contrast with the Democratic Party establishment. The last time YouGov asked voters how they feel about the two parties (late April), the Democrats were ahead of Republicans among young voters— 45% to 34%. However 35% still disapproved of the Democrats, almost the same (34%) as disapproved of Republicans.

The Democratic Party needs to figure out why young voters aren’t enthusiastic about them, even in the face of an unacceptable Trump and GOP. First off, are they enthusiatic about anything politically? Oh, yes they are: Zoran Mamdani, the Bernie/AOC quality candidate for mayor of NYC, a candidate that the careerist establishment is horrified by, as much so as Republicans are.

Oriana González and Shifra Dayak reported that “Mamdani’s decisive Democratic primary win in New York City reinvigorated the progressive movement and put a magnifying glass on the young, online-savvy candidates running to be the next generation of Democrats. As national Democrats look to regain power in Washington and grapple with how to reach voters through non-traditional media, Mamdani’s primary success has raised an age-old question in politics: Are these kinds of victories replicable?”

Young progressive congressional candidates like Elijah Manley (FL), Bushra Amiwala (IL), Emily Berge (WI), Kat Abughazaleh (IL), Donavan McKinney (MI), Oliver Larkin (FL), Saikat Chakrabarti (CA), Erica Lee (CA), Lukas Ventouras (NY), Alex Pereszlenyi (NV), Randy Villegas (CA)… are “seeking comparisons to Mamdani.”

Nothing is going to wash this away

Even centrist Democrat Rep. Josh Gottheimer, who has balked at Mamdani’s platform and message, said in a statement to NOTUS last week that he’s open to learning how the New York City Democrat reached so many people. Gottheimer attended a breakfast meeting with Mamdani in Washington, D.C., hosted by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez last week that focused on potential takeaways from Mamdani’s campaign.

Those aligned with Mamdani ideologically, however, say it’s not all style. Mamdani had concise, easily repeatable campaign goals: “freeze the rent,” “fast and fare free buses” and so on.

“If just having good ads, or slick ads, and being young won you elections, then you’d have a bunch of 33-year-old mayors all over America,” Rep. Greg Casar, the chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, told NOTUS. “Mamdani won because he had a bold, anti-establishment, clear message and he was able to communicate it very effectively online and authentically.”

Arizona-based progressive social media influencer Deja Foxx’s failed bid to replace Rep. Raúl Grijalva was an early example that online buzz— and being young— doesn’t necessarily translate to electoral success, Adam Kinsey, a Democratic strategist in the state, told NOTUS.

Foxx, a 25-year-old with nearly 400,000 followers on TikTok, wanted to position herself as the Mamdani of Arizona, looking to build her appeal by making the case that she wasn’t connected to career politicians.

Kinsey said Foxx lost to Adelita Grijalva, the late congressman’s 54-year-old daughter who has held various local political positions in the district, partly because she focused too much on her age, painting herself as an agent of change without talking enough about issues.

Grijalva isn’t an establishment candidate, either— and not an equivalent to Andrew Cuomo, strategists, elected officials and candidates told NOTUS. She received the support of key progressives on Capitol Hill: the Congressional Progressive Caucus, Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren and Ocasio-Cortez.

“Adelita has communicated, over the course of many years, a bold, anti-establishment and progressive message that voters trust,” Casar said.

Even as some senior Democrats have privately expressed concern that Mamdani’s campaign suggests that younger challengers automatically have a leg up, Casar and Ocasio-Cortez said that reducing the New York and Arizona races to them being about young people who understand the digital media landscape was wrong.

“The same movements that support me and Zohran Mamdani also support Bernie Sanders and Adelita Grijalva,” Ocasio-Cortez told NOTUS. “The idea that whenever the youngest person in a race loses, irrespective of their substance, that that’s somehow contrary to any sort of movement, I think is false.”

Progressive candidates still in the running say they’re trying to find the right balance to break through.

Voters “feel like [Democratic] candidates are fake, and we’re trying too hard, and it’s inauthentic. They want people who come from the community, who know their community, who know what it’s like to struggle,” said Elijah Manley, a 26-year-old progressive candidate and substitute teacher who is running against Florida Democratic Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick.

Ahead of the 2026 election, the progressive group Justice Democrats is endorsing Donavan McKinney, a young Michigan state lawmaker who has also been endorsed by Sanders, in a primary challenge against Democratic Rep. Shri Thanedar, who has routinely irritated some in the party. Justice Democrats spokesperson Usamah Andrabi said McKinney’s age is a benefit in the race, but so is his life experience and focus on cost-of-living issues and removing corporate influence from politics.

“I don’t think we should flatten what voters are looking for,” Andrabi told NOTUS. “[Mamdani] did not win this just because he was a young, fresh face. He also won this because of what he was standing up for and who he was standing up against and what he was unwilling to compromise on.”

Joel Payne, former senior aide for Hillary Clinton and chief communications officer at MoveOn, a progressive policy organization, told NOTUS that Foxx losing and Mamdani winning do not “run in conflict.”

“I think they all point in a general direction that, you know, political convention is going to be flipped on its side,” Payne added. “You’re going to have these candidates all over the country. I think that says something to you a little bit about … the people who are starting to make themselves a part of the political process and also where the grassroots energy is pointing in the broader Democratic Party.”

Candidate quality means something, so does authenticity. Age can sometimes be shorthand for those attributes and others as well. But I run across young candidates all the time who aren’t necessarily the best suited for an office. So… what resonates isn’t just youth— it’s vision, backbone and a commitment to challenge entrenched power. Mamdani didn’t win the primary because he was fluent in memes; he won because he rejected the corporatized status quo, spoke to everyday material concerns and didn’t flinch when the establishment threw its weight against him. That’s what young voters are responding to: clarity, not triangulation; action, not affectation. An elder statesman like Bernie can electrify a college auditorium while a 30-year-old party hack can’t fill a dorm lounge, because authenticity isn’t a matter of birth year— it's a matter of guts and values.

If Democrats continue to ignore the clear through-line in this data— young voters aren’t apathetic, they’re repelled by bullshit— they’ll keep hemorrhaging support to third-party candidates, protest abstentions or worse, MAGA. The party doesn’t need to pander to youth culture with TikTok dances or emoji-laden slogans; it needs to stop treating Gaza like a donor-management issue, climate collapse like a branding opportunity, and housing affordability like a zoning quirk. When young people feel like the party hears them, not just hears of them, they'll show up. Until then, expect them to keep seeking out leaders like Mamdani— candidates who don’t just ask for votes, but actually deserve them.

New chart shows how much more young voters hate Trump than any other age group does. Look at that first quadrant— voters under 30 years old.